Argos aims to circulate writing about topical matters of public and political import that is local, critical and accessible. We believe critical intellectual conversation should be heard here in Aotearoa-New Zealand, not simply published for credit in international fora for more limited and specialised audiences. Of particular interest to us is writing that grounds its concern with the public or political good of place-making in theory or philosophy.

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māori

by Argos as You as Argos

Since approximately 1980, there has been a revival and a revitalisation of a body of knowledge called ‘mātauranga Māori’, or traditional Māori knowledge. The story of this body of knowledge is similar to that of the many indigenous knowledges found throughout the world—diminished, oppressed and suppressed through colonisation, abandoned by indigenous peoples themselves and revived through late twentieth century revitalisation. Working in a W...

Introduction We are coming to a decision point of fundamental importance to how we understand our work and ways in New Zealand universities. Do we value Māori and Pasifika students only because they are so often represented as being needy, underachieving, and disadvantaged minority groups, those who are the focus of government investment approaches geared to improving education outcomes? Or is there an alternative based on recognising the cont...

...ilm about Rotuma.) For us, this asking after grounds is what a university does or, rather, ought to do. We see every 'class,' or university occasion, real or virtual, as subtended by the deeper set of questions raised by Māori scholar Te Ahukaramū Charles Royal: 'Who am I? What is this world I find myself in? What am I to do?' Thus, the 'ground' of the university, unlike that of any other social institution, is not given in the sense...

...other down a gravel road. The photograph of Dame Whina Cooper at the outset of Te Ropu Matakite, the 1975 Land March from Te Hapua to Parliament, has come to signify peaceful resistance in New Zealand and the re-assertion of Māori political identity. Above ground, the footpath from the Business School leading to the General Library owes its steep gradient to the sandstone below. Those approaching the university from the east on bicycle or...

An activist who is required to act in ways which are secretive, unaccountable, and not open to dialogical engagement with others is an activist who is displacing activism in favour of professional elitism. Most of us working and studying in tertiary institutions in New Zealand are familiar with the corridor conversations, the grumbling after meetings, and the remarks over a cup of tea about how managerialism is changing the nature of our i...